Here at Bartels Heating and Cooling, we care about the safety and well-being of our customers and employees. We have been closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation and are using the guidance from public health officials. This is a fluid situation and Bartels will continue to take necessary measures to help protect our employees, their families and our customers.
Bartels Heating and Cooling is currently taking all service calls, maintenance visits, and installation work. We realize that the services we provide are necessary for the health and comfort of your family and assure you that we will be here to provide those services when needed.
Per public health officials, we have instructed our employees to not initiate physical contact with customers. In addition, we will continue to utilize preventative measures as we have in the past such as wearing shoe covers, using clorox wipes, wearing gloves, etc.
We will continue to monitor the situation as it changes on a daily or even hourly basis. Bartels heating and Cooling will continue making changes to our routine as required. In the meantime, stand ready and willing to serve you in every way we can.
Paul Reid
President
Bartels Heating and Cooling
At the end of each winter, you’ll want to assess your furnace and ask yourself if it is getting close to—or even reached—the end of its service life. If you think the furnace is too old, the spring and summer is a good time to have the new installation work done, since you won’t need to have the furnace keeping your home warm.
Spring starts in late March, although that doesn’t mean we automatically receive warmer weather. This is a fickle month where temperatures can swing from extremes, and the heating system warming your home will still need to run on the regular.
People enjoy a fresh start at the beginning of the year. You may be thinking that a new start is what you need for your home heating. You have an old furnace that you think isn’t living up to its old standards. It sounds like a good reason to have a new furnace installed, and there are many excellent options on the market for a high-efficiency heating unit.
If you feel colder in your house than normal this winter to the point that you’re putting on heavy layers of clothing, nudging up the thermostat to much higher temperatures, and listening to family members complain about their rooms feeling like iceboxes, the trouble may be a heating system that’s struggling to keep up.
Not only is duct sealing helpful, in situations of major duct leakage it’s a necessity. Going without it means paying more to heat and cool your house, creating extra strain on the HVAC system, a shorter life for the heater and AC, unhealthy and poor-smelling air in the house, and other problems.
Furnace manufacturers design their heating products for durability and dependability. But at the same time, furnaces are complex devices and they can suffer from a range of malfunctions during their service lives. These troubles can be kept to a minimum through regular heating maintenance, but nothing can prevent all possible problems. And no problem with a natural gas furnace is more concerning, and more in need of a speedy response, than a cracked heat exchanger.
The air filter on the HVAC cabinet of your home has a vital job to do—and it isn’t connected to the quality of the air circulating through the house. People often have this misunderstanding: they hear the word filter an imagine the mesh of the filter trapping unhealthy particles in it. You can have HVAC technicians install special indoor air quality filters into the ductwork to remove contaminants from the house—but the one already in place isn’t doing that job.
December is Winter. The actual season doesn’t officially start until the solstice on 20–21, but winter weather doesn’t run on a strict calendar anyway.
You’re concerned about the indoor air quality in your house, and that’s a good place to start. IAQ in homes is often remarkably poor, four or five times worse than that outdoors. But if you have air filters to improve the air quality, why aren’t you noticing any positive results? If you’re still experiencing the same dusty air, the same number of allergens, the same coughing fits, etc., then something must be wrong—but what?